Conditions to apply
Students who would like to participate in the Spin Your Thesis! – Human Edition programme must comply with the following criteria at the time of the application:
- be aged between 18 and 28;
- a citizen of an eligible state;
- a full-time student in a university of an eligible state for the period of the experiment development and the time of the campaign;
- studying a scientific, medical or engineering subject.
Conditions for participation
One important condition is that the experiment be an integral part of the student’s syllabus. This can be achieved through a Master’s Thesis, a PhD Thesis, a research programme, or any form of project supported by the applicant’s university.
At the time of the application, the student teams must be able to show ESA's Education Office that they have their universities’ support through a letter of endorsement from an endorsing professor or academic supervisor from each university in which students are studying.
Teams should be composed of four to six students, all of which must fulfil the eligibility criteria. At least one, and preferably two, team members should comply with the condition of involvement in the syllabus (see above). The final number of team members that can personally assist and participate in the execution of the experiments at the DLR Short Arm Human Centrifuge (should the team be selected) will depend strictly on the requirements of the experiment itself, and is subject to acceptance from the review committee, who may decide to reduce the size of the team.
The initial composition of the team cannot be changed during the programme. If, for exceptional reasons, changes are absolutely necessary, they will be subject to the approval of the review board.
The proposals submitted by the student teams will be evaluated based on the fulfilment of all the required steps. Please read the how to apply page carefully.
Endorsing professors
Overall endorsing professor
Each teams must be supported by one of their professors or academic supervisors, whose role will be to supervise the work of the students. This person must belong to the same institution of at least one of the students, is expected to endorse the entire application and development process of the team, and will bear responsibility for the experiment. If the team does not have a PhD student in it, the endorsing professor must also attend the entire experiment campaign.
Additional endorsing professor
If the team consists of students from different universities, all students from universities that are not of the overall endorsing professor are required in addition to have an endorsing professor or academic supervisor from their university.
At the moment of application, each endorsing professor will have to provide ESA's Education Office with a Letter of Endorsement. In this letter they should state the names of their students and that they bear responsibility for their involvement in the programme.
Selection criteria
In order to assess the experiment proposals, following assessment of eligibility, the proposal review committee evaluate submissions based a number of criteria including: scientific or medical interest, the relevance of the proposed research, feasibility, its novelty, and the degree of project alignment with the students’ university syllabus.
Please note that the conditions detailed above are subject to change without prior notice.